Weird Things Daniel Radcliffe Did After Harry Potter

Daniel Radcliffe knows that he's going to be Harry Potter for the rest of his life. That came along with the job, and he's remarkably cool with it. But that doesn't mean we should always expect him to behave like a cute, wand-waving wizard in training. In fact, Radcliffe has gone out of his way to shed the cloak and glasses both physically and metaphorically, choosing scandalous roles and partaking in decidedly muggle-esque behavior. Here is a list of some of the more questionable choices Daniel's made since he vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Actually occurring right in the middle of his Harry Potter run, Daniel Radcliffe joined the cast of the West End's revival of Equus, a play about a young man who has a fixation, shall we say, with horses. And by fixation we mean sexual attraction that leads to gruesome violence. Did we mention the role calls for full-frontal nudity? Because at 17-years-old, the star of the most successful children's book film adaptation in the world used his down time to get naked in front of a nightly audience of theatergoers. There are ways an actor can distance himself from being typecast as a children's entertainer and then there's what Daniel did. Maybe it's a British thing and they're more cool with it. But can you imagine how Americans would have reacted if Doogie Howser had gone this route?

Since Daniel Radcliffe had already shattered his kid-friendly career track with his horse-friendly performance in Equus, taking on the role of counterculture beat poet Allen Ginsberg didn't seem all that risque. Initial speculation about Radcliffe's Ginsberg portrayal centered on the widely known First Amendment controversy surrounding his poem, Howl, but the movie instead focused on Ginsberg's youthful relationships with his fellow beat generation artists. This includes a rather graphic love scene between he and Lucien Carr, which means there's got to be a list lying around Radcliffe's house titled Scenes I'd Like To Do That Could Never Take Place Anywhere Near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In an interview with ShortList Magazine, Radcliffe admitted that his drinking problem, which began at 18-years-old, got out of control when he found himself holed up getting drunk at home alone, and that "in the last three years of drinking I blacked out nearly every time. Blacking out was my thing." Yikes. There were no shortage of scandalous stories during this time, including allegations that he was drinking of the set of some of the Potter films, hooking up with groupies, and being tossed out of pubs routinely. Fortunately, through some mentorship and self-actualization, Radcliffe came to grips with the hard stuff and put it away for good. He's been sober for a few years now and will hopefully stay that way barring any barnyard mishaps. (Sorry, we're still stuck on that Equus thing.)

Before getting sober, there were no shortage of partying rumors about Daniel Radcliffe. For as much as the American tabloid press likes to speculate on possible Jennifer Aniston pregnancies, the British gossip rags like nothing more than to catch their stars overindulging in the good life. So, when Daniel Radcliffe sparked up a questionable-looking, hand rolled cigarette at a party, the Daily Mirror stopped the presses, because they thought they nailed Harry Potter getting high. The usual denials and threats of legal action ensued and the whole thing blew over, because what was realistically going to happen here? Replace him with a new actor five movies in? Movie studios have dealt with far worse for the sake of a massively profitable franchise. Does Marlon Brando ring any bells?

You may not think it's controversial at all for Daniel Radcliffe to go on The Tonight Show and rap, and you'd be right, except for the fact that he was freaking awesome at it. It's one thing to be a nerdy little white kid who got to play one of the coolest characters of all time and make millions in the process, but to have mic skills like Eminem to boot? Not cool, man. Can you leave some talent on the table for the rest of the awkward, skinny white guys? Let us guess, you're probably also a brilliant coder, mechanical engineer, and biochemist as well. At least Facebook has already been invented by someone else, so you can stop tinkering with your world-changing social media application now, Daniel.

With the upcoming release of the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them comes an intense controversy over the use of the word "no-maj" by American magicians in place of "muggles," the beloved British magician term for non magical people. It's caused quite a tiff amongst the Potterhead community, prompting Radcliffe to weigh in on the fervor during promotion for an entirely non-Harry-Potter-related film. But alas, to the dismay of Team Muggle, Radcliffe issued the most banal of responses, saying "I have no strong opinions about this. We have different words in England, so it makes perfect sense that there should be a different word for it in America." How can he be so cavalier? This would be like Edward publicly saying he understands how Bella might be attracted to Jacob. It's just not right!

At this point in Daniel Radcliffe's career, he's covered magic, gay love affairs, and how to be the absolute worst ranch-hand imaginable, so why not play the guy who invented a game where you have the option to do nothing but murder prostitutes all day? It actually seems sort of tame in comparison, and when given the option of what Harry Potter fans would rather see him play next, we're pretty sure they'd pick "the guy who designed Grand Theft Auto" over "the guy who falls in love with and mutilates horses." Yes, we realize this entire article circled back to that, but come on. What else were we supposed to do with that information?